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>>>Tuesday January 25, 11:01 am Eastern Time Damaged U.S. Gulf oil pipeline to be closed weeks HOUSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The damaged 200,000 barrel-per-day Poseidon crude oil pipeline in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico is likely to remain closed for several weeks, a spokesman for its operator Equilon Pipeline Co. said on Tuesday.

``It will be weeks before it's back up but I can't be more specific than that,'' Equilon spokesman Dave McKinney said.

The Poseidon pipeline, which carries roughly one seventh of U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil production, was closed on Friday after it was damaged by a dropped anchor from a drilling rig, causing it to leak 94,000 gallons of oil into the sea.

Traders in the U.S. cash crude market said Tuesday that the problems had little impact on the differentials of domestic crude prices.

The incident occurred about 50 miles offshore and some 75 miles south of Houma, Louisiana, where the pipeline connects with a crude oil terminal. The slick formed on the water's surface by the leaking oil was broken up over the weekend.

McKinney said experts were still assessing the damage, caused by a Transocean Sedco Forex Inc.(NYSE:RIG - news), so that they could devise a repair plan.

``It's a big project... We're anxious to put a time frame on this and hopefully in a couple of days when they conclude their assessment, they'll be able to do that,'' he said.

McKinney said when the pipeline was damaged on Friday it was carrying crude oil from 11 production platforms but he said he was unable to name the companies whose production was affected.

Equilon is a joint venture company owned by Royal Dutch/Shell Group(quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) and Texaco Inc.(NYSE:TX - news). <<<

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), January 25, 2000

Answers

It just keeps getting curious-er and curious-er.

-- Maher Shalalhashbaz (mahershalalhasshbaz@mail.com), January 25, 2000.

Curious, but not Y2K related, right!!

My question: with the amount of $$ at stake, why would the person in charge of a drilling rig be so careless as to drop anchor on a major pipeline (presumably also used to carry their crude)????

Y2K related or not, it's one more "cut" of the "thousands" to come.

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), January 25, 2000.

Possibly 'real' Y2K-failures aren't ocurring at the anticipated rate and the plot to mess with supply must be helped along via accidents.

-- hmm (you@never.know), January 25, 2000.

The anchor was not Y2K compliant.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), January 25, 2000.

Come on folks! Do you realy believe an anchor fell on the pipline? Lets take a look at the sea floor for just a moment please.----going down----- now, what do you see, take a good look? Nothing but ocean floor right? Do you see any pipes? Anywhere?

Now, what do you think the chances of are of a boat, being in the right place at the right time, combined with an anchor breaking at just the right place at the right time, combined with an ocean current of just the right amount at just the right time? This equals NO FREAKIN WAY!

You would have better luck standing out in the street in the middle of Florida and getting hit by lightning TWICE! Get real people, lies..... all lies!

-- Electman (vrepair1@tampabay.rr.com), January 25, 2000.

Hm, actually, we do have somebody in Florida who was hit twice by lightning on this board.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), January 25, 2000.

What garbage. I can't imagine a ships captain for the oil industry is not fully aware of the catastrophe an anchor could do to an undersea oil line. I can't imagine they even drop anchor;it's obviously too dangerous and is probably #1 on the list of the things they never do...#2 being don't lose power and smash in to the oil platform. Even in a calm harbor it is always a possibility that you will drag your anchor and end up on the shore. I can't see anchoring any size ship out in the ocean. T.

-- Tom (Tomsnw@tii.com), January 25, 2000.

If "Y2K" does not exist, didn't happen and whose insurance litigation was legislated out of existence, then "accidents" like dragging huge anchors behind ships until CLANG, what the !&@ was that occur. Shift just happens, right? Now someone get that claim adjuster on the line for me.

-- revolting peasant (wagevictim@usainc.com), January 25, 2000.

An Anchor? BWAAHAHAHAHA! my a$$! how weak! They're running out of the good lies I guess. Someone had to really dig for this one.

So did the 2 biggies after start up again? The two that shut pre- rollover as a precaution? Please say yes....

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 25, 2000.